Indoor Air Quality Services in Jacksonville, FL

The EPA recommendation is a filter rated at least MERV 13, or as high as your system will accommodate. The rating comes from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2, which scores filters from MERV 1 to 16 on average removal across three particle size ranges. The reason 13 is the number people quote: only MERV 13 and above must demonstrate at least 50 percent removal of particles in the 0.3 to 1 micrometer range, where MERV 11 only has to reach 20 percent.

Not without checking first. The EPA warns that selecting any higher-efficiency filter must take into account its compatibility with the existing ducted system, so that airflow is not impeded by the added resistance, and says a trained professional may need to modify the system to accommodate one. A filter that chokes the airflow can freeze a coil and cost you a compressor, which is an expensive way to buy cleaner air. We measure static pressure rather than guessing.

ENERGY STAR maintenance guidance says to inspect, clean or change air filters once a month. The EPA notes that manufacturers typically recommend replacement every 60 to 90 days. In a Jacksonville summer, with pets and the system running most of the day, monthly is the realistic answer.

No, and the EPA says so directly: air cleaners and HVAC filters do not solve mold problems, because they do not address the moisture causing the growth. The agency also states plainly that no air cleaner or filter eliminates all pollutants, and that filtration supplements source control and ventilation rather than replacing either. Find the water first. Everything else is downstream of that.

No agency of the federal government has approved ozone generators for use in occupied spaces, and the EPA states that at concentrations that do not exceed public health standards, ozone is generally ineffective at controlling indoor air pollution. The agency separately cautions that electrostatic precipitators, ionizers, plasma air cleaners and UV lights without adequate lamp coatings may emit ozone themselves. We do not sell ozone generators or ionizers.

Partly, and not the way they are usually sold. The EPA says properly designed ultraviolet germicidal systems may destroy some organisms growing on moist surfaces inside the equipment, but that typical units used in homes have limited effectiveness in killing bacteria and molds, since effective destruction of most mold and bacterial spores requires far higher exposure than a home unit provides. It also notes that dead mold spores can still produce allergic reactions. Worth something on a wet coil. Not a whole-house answer. We install UV lights; ask us whether one makes sense for your system.

Reasonable for a single room, and the number to compare is CADR, the clean air delivery rate. The EPA publishes a sizing table — roughly 65 cfm minimum for a 100 square foot room and 325 cfm for 500 square feet, at eight-foot ceilings. Worth knowing that CADR rates particle removal only, not gases, so it tells you nothing about odors or fumes.

Yes, for Gold Maintenance Plan members: 20% off indoor air quality products. The plan is $199 a year and includes two maintenance visits. We still measure first and only recommend a product that will help.

Maybe, and the honest answer is that nobody can tell you over the phone. The EPA offers no blanket recommendation on duct cleaning and states it has never been shown to actually prevent health problems. It does list conditions that warrant it: substantial visible mold growth inside hard-surface ducts, vermin infestation, or ducts so clogged with excessive dust and debris that particles are actually being released into the home from the registers. We look first, and we show you what we find either way.

Both. The Department of Energy puts typical losses at 20 to 30 percent of the air moving through the duct system. In a vented Jacksonville attic, air lost on the supply side has to be replaced by air drawn in on the return side, and that make-up air comes from wherever the leak happens to be — attic, wall cavity, crawl space. Florida treats duct leakage as something measurable: the energy code requires pressure testing at 25 pascals and caps postconstruction leakage at 4 cfm per 100 square feet of conditioned floor area.

Possibly, and the code sets the trigger. Under the Florida Energy Code, dwelling units with an air leakage rate less than three air changes per hour must be provided with whole-house mechanical ventilation. ASHRAE Standard 62.2 is the consensus residential standard covering dwelling-unit ventilation, local mechanical exhaust and source control. The Florida wrinkle is that the outside air you are bringing in is humid, so it has to be conditioned rather than merely introduced.

Quite possibly, yes. Florida Statute 553.885 requires an approved operational carbon monoxide alarm within 10 feet of each room used for sleeping purposes, in every separate building or addition constructed on or after 1 July 2008 that has a fossil-fuel-burning heater or appliance, a fireplace, an attached garage, or another feature that emits carbon monoxide as a byproduct of combustion. The attached-garage trigger is the one that surprises people whose HVAC is entirely electric.

Yes, and it is inexpensive. The EPA advises testing every home regardless of the radon zone it sits in, fixing at 4 pCi/L or above and considering a fix between 2 and 4. Duval sits in a lower-potential zone, but the Florida Department of Health reports that one in five Florida residences has radon above the EPA action level, and that elevated levels have been found in all building types in the state. Radon mitigation is its own trade with its own licensing — we will point you at the state program rather than pretend it is an HVAC job.